and Ibn ʿAsākir also transmitted—from Zaynab and ʿAbd al-Muʿizz al-Bazzāz—who said:

Zāhir ibn Ṭāhir informed us; Abū Saʿd the littérateur informed us; Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad, the ḥāfiẓ, informed us; ʿUbayd Allah ibn ʿUthmān al-ʿUthmānī in Baghdad related to us; ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Madīnī related to us; Muḥammad ibn Ṭalḥah al-Taymī related to us; Abū Suhayl Nāfiʿ ibn Mālik narrated to me, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, from Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ, who said:

The Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said, “This ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib is the most open-handed of Quraysh and the best of them in keeping the bonds of kinship (1).”

Al-Nasāʾī also recorded it through Ḥumayd ibn Zanǧūyah al-Nasāʾī, from ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī, with a chain that is two levels higher.

Al-Musallam ibn ʿAllān and al-Muʿammal ibn Muḥammad informed us, saying:

Abū al-Yaman al-Kindī informed us; Abū Manṣūr al-Shaybānī informed us; Abū Bakr the ḥāfiẓ informed us; Abū Saʿd al-Mālinī informed us; Ibn ʿAdī informed us; Ibn Nājah, ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn Marwān, and Muḥammad ibn Khālid al-Bardaʿī narrated to us, saying:

Abū Rifāʿah ʿAbd Allah ibn Muḥammad al-ʿAdawī informed us; Ibrāhīm ibn Bashshār related to us; Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah related to us; ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī told me, from Abū ʿĀṣim, from Ibn Jurayj, from ʿAmr ibn Dīnār—he then mentioned a hadith and Sufyān added:

“You reproach me for loving ʿAlī? By Allah, I used to learn from him more than he learned from me.”

Al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿUfayr transmitted: Aḥmad ibn Sinān narrated to us, saying:

“Ibn ʿUyaynah used to address ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī—whom he nicknamed ‘Ḥayyat al-Wādī (the Serpent of the Valley)’—so that whenever Sufyān needed verification or was asked about something, he would say, ‘If only the Serpent of the Valley were here!’”

And al-ʿAbbās al-ʿAnbarī said: “Sufyān used to call ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī ‘Ḥayyat al-Wādī’ (the Serpent of the Valley).”